Pot & skins a popular format

Saturday, Feb. 6, Silky Oak – Stableford

Our Saturday golf had been up and down in numbers, but this Saturday we had a large turnout of 22 players at Silky Oak. This included a tour group of 8 players which played in their own competition, so with 14 of us playing in the “Pot & Skins” it was an ideal number for this format of competition.

A lot of people don’t know how a pot and skins format works, so let me briefly explain. Everyone plays the normal stableford competition from their normal handicap, but we only pay out prize money for the overall winner. All the other proceeds count towards a hole by hole pot, for example 50 baht or 100 baht per hole (skin). Whoever has the skill to get the lowest net score on each hole wins the pot for that hole, and if multiple players have the same lowest net score, that pot is carried forward to the next hole. 3/4 hcp is used in the calculation of the players handicap to determine which hole indexes he/she gets shots on.

Friday winners Greg Hill and Barry Mcintosh.

Still seems complicated? The computer works it all out and all that I need to do is enter the scores as we normally do for all competitions. I simply print out a report which shows all players net scores and who had the lowest score for each hole, and make a few sum additions.

The fun thing about this format is that you can have a terrible round, but on a certain hole you score that elusive birdie and you may end up with a good number of skins. You are therefore never out of the game in this format, no matter how bad your day is going.

On the other side of the spectrum, a player doing well like Per Loevgren, scored 37 points twice in 2 weeks, and never got a skin for all his efforts as he didn’t get a good enough net score on any hole to win the hole outright!

The skins pot stay in the bar, and if you’re not there after the game to collect your winnings, the players that remain share that on the drinks bill. Another example of why this is a really social and fun day designed for those guys that want a social game and a laugh with the boys, rather than a regular competition. Join us and try out this fun format – every Saturday at Silky Oaks.

Monday, Feb. 8, Burapha C & D – Stableford

1st John Cunningham (7) 35pts

2nd John Fitzgerald (20) 33pts

3rd Mike Missler (11) 33pts

4th Peter Nixon (11) 31pts

5th John O’ Keefe (17) 31pts

Another good number of new faces joined us today. Welcome back to Geoff Harrison, Tony Gilchrist and Gary March. Today’s field was a little smaller than in the previous weeks and the going was tough with difficult pin positions and fast greens on the C&D course. Scoring wasn’t high, even with the generous course and slope ratings giving an extra shot to some players, and no one scored better than handicap.

In fifth place was John O’Keefe on 31 points and Peter Nixon took fourth on the same score. Mike Missler, continuing his improvement, placed third with 33 and was edged out by John Fitzgerald on count back. The winner this week was John Cunningham, playing by far the best with a great 80 gross and 35 points.

Friday, Feb. 12, Green Valley – Stableford

Div A: [0-12]

1st Michel Deletraz (9) 35pts

2nd KB Lee (7) 34pts

3rd Stephen Mann (9) 34pts

Div B: [13-17]

1st Greg Hill (17) 35pts

2nd Jean Maffray (13) 31pts

3rd John Stafford (16) 31pts

Div C: [18 up]

1st Barry McIntosh (22) 31pts

2nd Stephen Blazsanyik (18) 30pts

3rd Bob Lindborg (22) 28pts

With our field exceeding 40 players and playing in three divisions it was a busy start to the day with our staff scrambling to get our Outback breakfasts prepared for the early morning revellers. Even though the groups are getting bigger all the time we had no difficulty getting everyone signed up and with everyone receiving their printed scorecards, as is the norm now at the Outback, we had a good start a little ahead of schedule.

The greens setup was very tough with difficult pin positions and fast surfaces, something very refreshing and unusual for Green Valley, and even though scoring wasn’t that high our groups thoroughly enjoyed this different look here. The result however was a highest score of 35 points on the day, and with a relatively large field, the smiles were big for Greg Hill and Mike Missler who had the only 2’s on the day.

Starting off with the C division, with handicaps 18 and up, Bob Lindborg scored 28 points to finish third, Waldo was two better in second and Barry Mcintosh, to his surprise, clinched first prize with just 31 points.

In the B division, with handicaps 13-17, John Stafford scored 31 points to take third, beaten by JP Maffray on count back. Greg Hill, visiting us from Hua Hin, finished as the winner with 35 points.

In the A division, Stephen Mann placed third with 34 points, edged out of second on count back by KB Lee, and in top spot was Michel Deletraz with 35 points.